It’ll take more than a flight scare to put me on the side of volcano lovers

IT was a scene straight out of some disaster movie. Last month I was taking an internal flight in India, leaving at 9pm.

I had been up since 4am so, seatbelt fastened, I was soon in the Land of Nod. Nearly two hours later, I woke up and checked my watch. “We should have landed ages ago,” I thought to myself, but just assumed there was congestion.

Seconds later, the captain was on: “I regret to inform you we have a problem with the landing gear and only 25 minutes of fuel left.” A sudden hush descended. Then a few people started chanting. I reached for the Blackberry and started typing that email we all hoped we’d never have to send. As for the man sitting next to me, I did not know what his connection with his God was like. I just knew I had no reception – too high up in the clouds.